


A Soft Epilogue

by Lolapola



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Established Poe Dameron/Finn, Established Relationship, Fluff, Force-Sensitive Finn (Star Wars), Happy Ending, Hints of OT3, If you're wearing OT3 goggles, M/M, Miscommunication, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Soft bois all round, TRoS Spoilers, Tiniest little bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:55:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24412420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lolapola/pseuds/Lolapola
Summary: They won the war, and Finn and Poe have entered a new age. So what now? What will they do next, now that, suddenly, they have their whole lives ahead of them?One thing is for certain - whatever they do, they'll do it together.Or: Finn and Poe would've got their happy ending a lot faster if they justtalkedto each other. Somehow, neither of them mind.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn
Comments: 14
Kudos: 70





	A Soft Epilogue

**Author's Note:**

> _I think we deserve  
>  a soft epilogue, my love.  
> We are good people  
> And we've suffered enough._
> 
> \- Seventy Years of Sleep by typervoxilations
> 
> Every time I see the above quote, it makes me think of these guys. I hope typervoxilations doesn't mind me using it in the title. This fic is just to indulge my need to see the trio finally happy and together. Nothing but soft vibes here! 
> 
> Disclaimer: I have only seen The Rise of Skywalker once, so any inaccuracies to do with the canon plot are down to that. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

The weird thing about life in the months after the war ended was how, after a while, everything kind of just…went back to normal. 

And sure, there was significantly less death and destruction and fear, but that wasn’t _all_ their lives had been. There’d been moments in between. They’d all tried to build lives here, the Resistance fighters – lives outside of the First Order and fighting and battle strategies. And that was the routine that everyone went back to now. The base was primarily just that – an army base – but for many of them, it was their home. For some of them, it was the only real home they’d ever known.

And Finn was one of those people.

Poe knew that. 

The First Order and the stormtroopers’ barracks, they hadn’t been a home for him. How could they be? Home, in Poe’s opinion, was a place of love and sanctuary. Somewhere where you loved the people in it, and they loved you. The base was where Finn had started his real life. _Their_ life, together. 

That was what Poe thought about, when he considered asking Finn to leave.

It had been nine months since the end of the war. After the dust had settled – after the seemingly endless celebrations, and the more endless funerals – Rey had left. It had hurt all of three of them, but Rey had been adamant it was the right thing to do. After she’d come back from her trip, with that yellow lightsaber, she’d had a new sense of purpose about her that was hard to argue with.

“I have to finish what Luke started,” she’d whispered in their dark room where they used to sit, just talking, until the early hours of the morning. “I have to try. There are people all over the galaxy like me and Finn. I can help them. We can help each other.”

“Like the Jedi?” Finn asked, frowning.

“No. I don’t think so. We’ll make it something else. Something…something that’s ours. I don’t know what it’ll be yet. Something good.”

She had watched them anxiously in the dim light, her eyes huge and serious. 

“Do you understand?”

Finn had breathed out slowly, and nodded, and Poe had followed suit. They knew the kind of responsibility she carried. Poe imagined it was something akin to what he’d felt after Leia died – the weight of the lives of his people and their trust, but also a sense of privilege. Like if he did the right thing, make the right choices, life would change for the better. For _everyone_. 

If that was how Rey felt, he couldn’t fault her for leaving. 

But that didn’t change how hard it was without her. Finn missed her, he could tell that, even when he was happy and laughing like he didn’t have a care in the world. And Poe missed her too, more than he’d anticipated – but they’d said their goodbyes and she’d promised to visit and she’d gone. And Finn and Poe had started to move on. 

Finn and Jannah had begun to work together to liberate and rehabilitate storm troopers across the galaxy. It had started off small – a handful of survivors from the final battle, the odd faction from First Order ships where their leaders had turned tail and disappeared when they knew they had lost – but gradually it had grown into an entire programme. At first, Finn had gone with Jannah to each location, bringing back lost and confused people with no names and nowhere to go, but as the system had grown, they had needed a coordinator, and Finn had volunteered. Multiple teams went out now, headed up by Jannah and her people from Kef Bir, and Finn stayed on the base to guide them and monitor those already rescued. 

One or two of the Resistance members had questioned spending so much time and resources on people who had, until recently, been trying to kill them, but Finn had vehemently defended their cause.

“All it takes is one person left behind,” he’d argued, eyes blazing, “One person who idolises the First Order, or feels disillusioned and betrayed, and the whole thing starts again. We have to be better.”

With Poe backing him up, opposition had quickly died down. And Poe had never seen Finn so happy. Like Rey – there was a purpose in him now, a true calling.

Poe envied him.

It wasn’t like he had nothing to do – if anything, he was almost felt busier than he had before the war had ended. The work was endless; there were First Order factions to be broken up as peacefully as possible and delegated to Finn’s group, liberated planets with no leader, displaced people with nowhere to go. There was, Poe realised late one night with a growing horror, an entire new _government_ that needed to be put into place. Some way of uniting the galaxy that had to be better than every government that had gone before them. 

And Poe was _tired_. 

May Leia and his dead friends and all those that had sacrificed themselves for this cause forgive him, he was so tired. He did his best, but more and more every day he realised that he’d never expected to make it out of the war alive. He was a war general, a soldier, not a politician. He’d fought for so long and so hard that he’d never considered what life would be like when they won. And now here they were, and winning didn’t seem to have brought him any peace. 

He wanted more now. They’d won and he was happy, but now he wanted something else. Something outside of the Resistance. 

But how could he tell Finn that? Finn, who had found a purpose, and a home, like he had never had before?

Poe lay awake every night, listening to Finn’s soft breathing next to him, listening to his thoughts chase each other in circles. And every night he came to the same conclusion. Finn wanted to be here. And he wanted Finn. So they would stay.

It never made sleep come any easier. 

“You alright?” Finn’s voice jolted him out of his haze. 

Poe looked up, feeling a soft smile work its way onto his face as he met concerned brown eyes across the table. No matter how lost he felt, Finn made him feel peaceful. It was when he wasn’t looking at Finn that was the problem. When they parted ways every morning, and Finn went off to coordinate his teams, and Poe went to the same room to face the same problems and have no solutions. 

“Yeah,” he sighed, “Yeah, I was just thinking.”

“Yeah, I kinda figured you were taking your next move real seriously, but this is a lot, even for you.” 

He nodded at the dejarik board between them, his voice light, but his face was serious, watchful.

Poe grimaced at himself. Finn knew something was up. How could he not? Poe had tried to hide his growing despair, but they spent every minute of their spare time together, and Finn knew him better than anyone. 

“Sorry, buddy,” he replied softly, “zoned out for a second. Hey, could we – do you mind if we finish the game tomorrow? I’m kinda beat.”

“Yeah. Yeah, course.”

Finn squeezed his hand gently, and they got ready to sleep in silence, Poe feeling Finn’s eyes on him the entire time. Poe caught his eye every now and then and smiled, trying to broadcast, “It’s not you, it’s me,” as loudly as he could without acknowledging that something was wrong. He didn’t want Finn to know he was unhappy, sure, but that paled in comparison to Finn thinking Poe was unhappy because of _him_. The thought was almost enough for him to tell Finn the truth here and now. 

Almost. 

_He’s happy here_ , Poe told himself, over and over. _Why can’t you just let him be happy?_

As usual, Poe lay awake for a long time after Finn turned the light off. 

And then something different happened.

Finn sighed, and then spoke.

“Are you still awake?”

Poe had been so wrapped up in his thoughts, so used to these long dark hours that stretched out endlessly in silence, that he wondered for a moment if he’d dreamt it. Then he rolled over and met Finn’s eyes, only just visible in the gloom. 

They stared at each other for a moment.

“Yes,” whispered Poe, a little redundantly.

Finn twitched a smile. 

“Wanna go for a walk?” he whispered back. 

Poe grinned. 

“Yes.”

They stole between the softly lit tents as quietly as they could. Barely anyone was around, but they avoided the people they did see in silent agreement. There was something about the early hour and the hushed, twilit base, normally buzzing with activity, that felt…special. Like they were different people here. Neither of them willing to break the spell.

As they crossed the hangar, a team of the night shift engineers came out of the doors, bickering between themselves, and Poe grabbed Finn and bundled him into a dark corner.

“What are you – Poe – _Poe_ -” Finn gasped through startled laughter, and Poe flapped his hands frantically, watching the engineers over Finn’s shoulder.

“Shhhhh!” he hissed. “Stop laughing, they’ll hear us -”

Finn snorted and then immediately clamped a hand over his mouth at Poe’s scandalised look. 

“Why are we hiding, we’re in _charge_ -” Finn broke off into laughter again and Poe couldn’t help but join in, burying his face in Finn’s shoulder in a desperate attempt to stifle the noise. 

“Don’t you – don’t you kind of feel like we’ll get into trouble?” 

Poe felt Finn start to nod, then stop.

“But – but, Poe, we’re _generals_ ,” he whispered plaintively, and they both dissolved into helpless giggles. 

The chatter of the engineers grew louder as they passed, and Poe held his breath without really knowing why, feeling Finn do the same. 

Eventually the voices faded away, and silence fell once more. Neither Finn nor Poe moved. 

“You know what this reminds me of?” Poe murmured eventually.

“When we first met.”

Poe smiled into Finn’s shoulder.

“Yeah.”

“With significantly less fear of execution and torture.”

Poe smiled wider.

“Yeah.”

Finn snorted and shoved Poe gently off him.

“Yeah, that wasn’t a meet-cute, idiot.”

Poe beamed, and kissed Finn on the nose.

“It kinda was. In the end.”

Finn rolled his eyes.

“Come on.”

They got off the base without running into anyone else and hiked through the jungle hand in hand. Neither of them spoke about where they were headed. They didn’t need to.

After an hour, they reached the edge of a clearing, leading to a clifftop. They stepped out into the light of the moons, and Poe felt Finn inhale deeply beside him. 

“Wow,” he murmured. “No matter how many times I come up here, it never fails to take my breath away.”

Poe hummed in agreement, taking in the sight. The base sprawled out below them, the glowing lights marking out the hangar and the lines of the tents. Around it, the jungle spread out to the horizon, the endless green turned a silver grey by the moonlight. A warm breeze ruffled the leaves around them and made the sweat cool on their skin. Only the gentle nighttime noises of whatever was in the forests around them broke the quiet. And above – Poe’s favourite – the endless, depthless, sweeping swathe of stars.

Poe was pretty sure it was one of the most beautiful places he’d ever been. 

Months ago, before the end of the war, there had been a lookout stationed on this clifftop at all times. It was good for that – you could see the entire base, the wide open sky, and the land around them for miles. Poe remembered coming up here when they first arrived and only noticing its strategic value in a battle. Now, he saw the beauty. Now, in peacetime, it was deserted. He and Rey and Finn came up here first a few days after the end of the war, when the parties had got too much and too many well-meaning people had wanted to shake their hands, and all they wanted was quiet. To mourn what they’d lost, and to accept what they’d won. It had become their place. A haven away from the bustle below. 

Poe felt Finn’s fingers tangle into his, and he let himself be pulled to the cliff edge. They sat down together in their usual spot in silence, content to enjoy the view and each other’s company.

After a long time, Finn sighed heavily and pulled away a little until he was sitting with his back angled to Poe, staring over the cliff. Poe watched him for a moment, his heart growing heavy, and then looked out at the great expanse of land and sky. It had been nice – to forget for a while – but he had to tell Finn the truth. It seemed easier here, away from it all. Under the stars. He took a deep breath.

“I wanna leave, Poe.” 

Finn spoke so suddenly that it took Poe a second to even register that he’d said anything, let alone _what_ he’d said.

“I – what?”

He turned to look Poe in the eye. 

“I’m sorry,” he said, and the words began to pour out of him as if a dam had been broken, “I’m sorry, I know it’s not what you want and – and I would never make you, if you don’t want to - leave, I mean – I just – I know you can tell something’s up, and I didn’t wanna lie – and it’s not you, I’m so happy with _you_ , Poe, it’s just – something’s not _right_ and I’ve tried but -”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Poe managed finally, putting his hands up in an attempt to stop the flow of words. Finn closed his mouth abruptly, looking miserable. “Let me just – _you_ want to leave?”

“I don’t - maybe,” Finn said, a little slower. “I didn’t want to say anything. I know how happy you are here. But I needed to tell you the truth. It doesn’t mean we have to go!” he added hastily, when Poe continued to simply stare, dumbfounded, “We can stay, we can – I don’t know – change something – or nothing! I just…wanted…to be honest.”

He trailed off, grabbing Poe’s hands in his and searching his face anxiously. 

“Please, just – tell me what you want to do,” he pleaded, his panic rising again in the face of Poe’s silence, “Tell me I did the right thing here and that - _why are you smiling?_ ”

Poe couldn’t help it. He tried to tamp down his grin at least a little in the face of Finn’s growing distress, but it was a losing battle. 

“You want to leave?” he asked, unable to truly believe it. “ _You_ want to leave?”

Finn swallowed nervously.

“Yes. Yes, but only if – Poe, what are you -”

“ _I_ want to leave!”

Finn stared.

“No, you don’t,” he said dumbly.

“Yeah!” Poe laughed aloud, unable to contain it. “Yeah, I do!”

Finn was gaping now, his mouth working soundlessly as he tried to formulate a response. 

“But – but – all of your work! The – the governmental stuff, the, the, the uniting of the galaxy, the building of a new alliance -”

“I hate it!” Poe cried joyfully, then immediately amended himself, “Well, not _hate_ it, exactly, just…”

He scrubbed a hand through his hair, trying to put into words the thoughts that had been plaguing him for months. 

“It’s just not _me_ , Finn. All that stuff – the policies and the meetings and the diplomacy, it’s not who I am. I can do it, sure, and I was happy to when we were fighting a war, but now it feels…”

“Final,” Finn finished for him, gentle, “Like you’re stuck.”

Poe stared into those calm, understanding eyes, and felt a weight lift off his shoulders.

“Yeah. Finn – I’m not a general. I’m not a peacetime leader. I’m a pilot. I stepped up because they needed me, and I would a thousand times over, but I – they don’t need me anymore. They need someone who’s in this for the long run, and I’ve had my foot out the door since -”

“Since Rey left,” Finn said, and Poe knew he understood. Finn let out a heavy sigh, reaching out to smooth down Poe’s wild curls. “Poe. Why didn’t you _say_ anything?”

“You were so happy. At least – I thought -”

Finn screwed his face up, looking away guiltily. “The stormtrooper programme?”

“Yeah. I don’t understand, I thought – that was your baby. I thought it was all you wanted to do.”

“It is! I’m proud of it, and I’m happy I started it, but lately it’s not -” He gestured helplessly, then sighed. “I’ve been getting this feeling. I don’t know what it – I used to get it back in the First Order all the time. This feeling of, like, missing something. Like, there’s somewhere else I wanna be, somewhere I know I’d feel happy, and safe. But I don’t know where that place is. It’s like how I feel sometimes when I want to come up here, with you, and I can’t.”

He gestured around them at the clifftop, then sighed again, deflating slightly. “I know it doesn’t make much sense.”

Poe, watching him, felt a smile tick the corner of his mouth. He forgot, sometimes, that there were some things Finn simply hadn’t been raised to have the vocabulary for.

“Homesick.”

Finn looked back at him, nonplussed. “What?”

“You’re homesick.”

“Home..sick?”

“It’s like you said – when you miss your home. And your family. When you want to be there, with them, but you can’t.”

Finn frowned, staring at the floor, thinking. “Yeah,” he said at last, “I guess that makes sense. But… can you still be home-sick if you don’t…have a home?”

It was Poe’s turn to frown now. “But – this is your home. Isn’t it?”

Finn smiled, a little sadly. “This isn’t a home, Poe. It’s an army base.”

Poe looked away, feeling oddly hurt, but Finn reached out and gently turned Poe’s face back towards him. 

“You’re my home,” he said firmly, “You and Rey. We just need to – find somewhere that feels like – like being with you feels. Does that make sense?”

Poe smiled. “Yeah,” he whispered, and leaned in to press his lips gently against Finn’s. 

When he pulled away, Finn was smiling too. Poe leant against him, breathing in his familiar scent. 

“Where would we even go?” he asked, breaking the hush that fallen over them. 

“Anywhere. We could go live with Rey.”

Poe snorted. “Yeah, she’d love that.”

“I mean it! She could help me with the – with the Force stuff, and maybe I could help with what she’s doing – I could bring some of the ex-stormtroopers, see if any of them are Force-sensitive. Or even if they’re not. Take them somewhere peaceful. Somewhere they can start a new life, away from all of this.”

He paused, and when he spoke again, Poe could hear the sly smile in his voice.

“You could teach them how to farm.”

Poe elbowed him in the ribs, ignoring the soft yelp of protest in favour of moving on from _that_ particular subject.

“And what about any you stormtroopers you haven’t found yet? The programme?” He felt Finn huff a laugh. 

“Jannah pretty much runs that show. She could easily take over from me if she stopped going on missions personally. And even if she didn’t, Jayelle has been helping me in the control room, she could easily do what I do.”

There was a pause as Poe considered this. 

“So. You could really leave,” he murmured.

“Yeah,” said Finn, and then, sensing the change in Poe’s tone, “Couldn’t you?”

Poe sighed. He’d dreamed about it for months, guiltily, secretly, but now it was a real possibility, could he do it? Could he really leave the responsibilities that Leia had asked him to take on?

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “I don’t know if I can just abandon everyone. We’re supposed to be their leaders. We can’t just walk away.”

Finn was silent for a long moment. 

“Why shouldn’t we?” he asked suddenly.

“Why – what?”

“Why shouldn’t we leave? Haven’t we done enough?”

Poe sat up to look at him, taken aback. Finn was hugging his knees and gazing out over the clifftop, tracing the lines of the base with his eyes. He spoke again, his voice faraway. 

“I’ve been fighting for them since I left Jakku. You, even longer. We’ve given this war everything, and we’ve lost so much, and we _won_. Isn’t that enough? Haven’t we earned this?” 

Poe touched Finn’s arm gently, and Finn turned to him, his eyes intense and burning. 

“We _can_ walk away, Poe. They’ve had enough of us. We did what we needed to do, and now we get to live.”

Poe nodded, at a loss for words. 

“Okay,” he whispered, “okay.”

Finn smiled, his face softening. 

“Thank you,” he whispered back. 

They settled next to each other again, and Poe looked up at the stars, trying to absorb what had just happened. They were leaving. He was leaving, and Finn was coming with him. It felt like a dream.

“I can’t believe you never said anything,” Finn said eventually, sounding more like himself. Poe smirked. 

“Hey, neither did you! And aren’t you supposed to be _sensing_ what I’m feeling anyway?”

Finn shifted uncomfortably beside him. “I’m not so good with all of that stuff yet. I could sense you were unhappy, but I thought it was because _you_ could sense that _I_ was unhappy.”

“Well, not all of us run around _sensing_ our way through life, Force Boy,” Poe said haughtily, “Some of us use our words.”

“Except you didn’t!” Finn squawked in outrage, “You didn’t say _anything_ , for _months_ -”

Poe shoved Finn with his shoulder, indignant. “I really thought you wanted to be here!”

Finn shoved Poe back. “ _I_ really thought _you_ wanted to be here!” 

There was a short pause. 

“Are we idiots?” Finn asked.

Poe took a long breath.

“Tell me,” he said, gravely. “Through the force, can you feel…Rey, smacking her head against a wall?”

There was another pause. Then Finn began to shake with laughter, and Poe joined in, unable to help himself.

“All this time,” he cried, “ _All this time_ …”

“We can’t -” gasped Finn, “We can’t tell Rey about this! We can’t! It’ll be so embarrassing -”

“She’ll be so smug about it,” Poe agreed, “And she’ll pretend like she always knew, like -”

Poe tried to force his face into something serious and dramatic, and attempted a poor imitation of Rey’s accent that sent Finn into another round of hysterics:

“’Ah…the two of you have finally found…found your…your _inner truths_.’”

“She’s gonna know you said that,” Finn choked out, “She’s gonna be so mad -”

“Well, Rey,” Poe continued, ignoring him and now talking very loudly to the sky. “If you knew, maybe you coulda – coulda maybe said something before now!” 

Finn keeled over slightly, wheezing with laughter.

“If you can hear me,” Poe yelled, “I’m just saying, you coulda maybe brought it up before we spent nine months making each other _miserable_ …!”

“We’re so dumb,” Finn moaned, flopping onto his back and rubbing his face, “ _So dumb_.”

Poe snorted, collapsing beside him. “Don’t say it too loud, we can’t have word getting back to base that their co-generals are – are co-morons as well.”

“ _Co-morons!_ ” Finn wailed through his hands, and Poe immediately lost his composure once again. 

After a few minutes of helpless giggling, Poe eventually sobered, and rolled onto his side to look at Finn.

“For the record,” he murmured, “I haven’t been miserable since the day I met you." 

Finn smiled softly, his dark eyes filled with wonder.

“Wow,” he whispered seriously, “not even…not even when there was this…huge war…”

“Unbelievable.” Poe whacked Finn on the shoulder and rolled away to hide his smile.

“There was this huge war-” Finn continued insistently, desperately trying to keep his own smile off his face, “And like – it was a couple of months ago, maybe you don’t remember, and like – a bunch of really bad stuff happened -”

“I tried to be romantic -”

“You weren’t even miserable then? That’s pretty messed up, man -”

“You know what? I’ve changed my mind, I’m actually really happy here – but, you know, don’t stay on my account -”

Poe stood up, making a big show of brushing down his clothes and leaving, and Finn was openly laughing now, trying to grab for Poe’s feet as he walked away.

“Wait – no – I’m sorry -” he gasped, with altogether too much sniggering to sound sincere, “Poe – come back -”

Poe stopped and looked down at him, fighting to keep his face impassive. Finn gazed back up at him, unconcerned. 

“Me too,” he whispered. 

Poe huffed a sigh, looking away.

“Bastard,” he muttered after a moment, and reached down to pull Finn to his feet, who cackled triumphantly. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Poe said, with very little heat, and lost his fight with his smile as soon as Finn leaned in to kiss him.

They stayed wrapped up in an embrace for a moment, breathing in each other’s smell mixed with the night air. Then Finn sighed.

“We should go,” he murmured reluctantly, “Lot of difficult conversations to have tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” replied Poe, with a twinge of guilt. 

“Hey.” Finn pulled back a little to look him in the eyes, his face serious now. “If you don’t wanna do this, just say.” He smiled, a little embarrassedly. “I think we’ve both proved that we can handle it if we need to. For each other.”

Poe smiled softly back. “No. You were right. We deserve this. We deserve to live our own lives, on our own terms.”

Finn beamed, and kissed him once more, before leading him by the hand back into the jungle.

“Come on,” he said, “Let’s go find Rey. Let’s go home.”

“Yeah,” answered Poe, his smile so wide it felt like it was splitting his face, and his heart feeling like it might burst. “Home.”

* * *

Far away, across the galaxy, Rey sat on a sandy hill in the pale light of dawn. She breathed in deeply – and smiled. 

_Finally._


End file.
